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Wheels of the World

UPDATE: This event is SOLD OUT. If you’d like to be the first to know when our next trolley tour will happen, ask to be added to our excursion notification list by emailing us at [email protected].

Sunday, June 4, one of the famous 1934 Blackpool “boat trams” will cruise again on the tracks of the F-line, with a guided tour of everything historic along the route from our friends at City Guides and our own Paul Lucas. It’s a private charter, and seats are limited.

In the background, PCC No. 1006, one of the regular double-end service cars you’ll ride on the E-line. Next to it, Muni’s latest historic streetcar acquisition, No. 233, our second 1934 “boat tram” from Blackpool, England, purchased by Market Street Railway and donated to Muni through a generous donation from The Thoresen Foundation, with shipping underwritten in part by FedEx Trade Networks. Michael Thoresen represented the Thoresen Foundation and Cassandra Lirio represented FedEx Trade Networks at the event. Both joined the civic dignitaries who rode to the event at Mission Street and The Embarcadero from the new E-line stop in front of AT&T Park at Second and King Streets.

At the ballpark stop, San Francisco Giants President and CEO Larry Baer took a break from his last-minute baseball trade deadline activities to greet the dignitaries. He thanked Market Street Railway President Rick Laubscher for his tireless advocacy for the E-line and noted what a great connection it will make for Giants fans as well as all other people coming to enjoy the length of the Northeast Waterfront.

After the ride up the Embarcadero on the boat tram, where Mayor Lee happily “rode shotgun,” standing in the morning breeze next to Muni trainer and motorman-for-the-ride Robert Parks, the dignitaries took turns praising the connectivity the E-line will bring between neighborhoods and attractions along its route from Fisherman’s Wharf to the Caltrain Depot at Fourth and King. Representatives of The Exploratorium and other attractions along the way were in the audience, while John Cannizzaro, President of the Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District and Katy Liddell, President of the South Beach-Rincon Hill-Mission Bay Neighborhood Association both spoke. Each called for extending the E-line as soon as possible: Cannizzaro saying the environmentally-approved extension from the Wharf to Fort Mason needs to happen “sooner than later,” and Liddell endorsing Market Street Railway’s proposal to continue E-line service south from Caltrain over the T-line tracks through Mission Bay and Dogpatch.

The immediate focus, though, is working to see that the initial E-line service runs smoothly. SFMTA, Muni’s parent, has posted signs and banners at the exclusive E-line stops south of Folsom Street to make it easy for riders to distinguish them from the high-level N- and T-line platforms. Both SFMTA and Market Street Railway have ambassadors in place for the first few weekends of service to answer riders’ questions and provide information on the new service.

For now, the service is limited to Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. It is expected to be expanded to seven days a week, with longer hours, early in 2016.

On the SFMTA side, the E-line startup effort has been led by Ed Cobean, head of cable car operations, on a special assignment under the leadership of Director of Transit John Haley. Deputy Director of Rail Maintenance Lee Summerlott has led the work on ensuring enough PCCs were available, ably assisted by Manny Enriquez, who also led the final preparations of boat tram 233. Director of Communications Candace Sue and Director of Service Planning Julie Kirschbaum led their teams’ efforts in getting the E-line up and running. Thanks to all who were involved on the SFMTA side.

On the Market Street Railway side, our efforts were led by our very able Board Chair Bruce Agid, with enthusiastic help from Board Member Katie Haverkamp. In an unfortunate coincidence, Bruce wasn’t able to make the opening event, because he was doing his civic duty — jury duty that is! But he got shout outs for his tireless advocacy on the E-line by Supervisors Christensen and Kim, among others.

Muni’s new “boat tram,” Blackpool, England open-top Car No. 233, will officially debut on July 31 at the opening press event for the new E-Embarcadero line. The new boat tram, Muni’s second example of this popular 1934 design, was acquired for Muni by Market Street Railway in 2013, thanks to a very generous donation by the Thoresen Foundation, and ocean shipping subsidized by FedEx Trade Networks. The boat, pictured above when on display during 2013’s Muni Heritage Weekend, has been out and about testing and training operators this week.

Photo seekers should be able to get excellent shots from the new Brannan Street Wharf on the Bay across from the Brannan Street Muni Metro Station. The new boat, and PCC No. 1006 will pass by on E-line track about 10:30 a.m. The two streetcars will proceed along the E-line right-of-way on The Embarcadero, branching off where the N- and T-line lines go into the subway at Folsom, and continuing north to Mission, where the press event will take place. We’ll be looking for one of these images for our 2017 Market Street Railway calendar, so please submit them to our Flickr group, tagged 2017msrcalendar.

You can also view the E-line press event at Mission and The Embarcadero, starting at 10:45 a.m. If you come, stop by our museum at the Steuart Street F-line stop, and be one of the first to pick up our new 2016 calendar, just delivered to us.

Remember, weekend E-line service starts this Saturday, August 1, from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. between the Caltrain station at Fourth and King, and Fisherman’s Wharf. Streetcars will operate every 15 minutes.

IMPORTANT: Though boat tram No. 233 will be “christened” on July 31 as part of the E-line celebration, it will not actually operate on the E-line, nor will its twin, No. 228, because the E-line requires double-end streetcars. While the boats operated as double-enders in Blackpool, Muni needed to create a wheelchair space on board to conform to the Americans With Disabilities Act. This required the doors on one side to be blocked. So No. 223 is not expected to carry regular passengers on Friday. Market Street Railway is working with SFMTA to try to get both boats into regular service for a number of days on the F-line later this year, and we expect both to operate for Muni Heritage Weekend, September 26-27.

In the days of strong competition between our namesake, Market Street Railway, and Muni, Muni sometimes had an employee at the Ferry Building loop promoting its K and L lines by saying “ALL the way out Market” (which many San Franciscans of the day pronounced “MAH-ket”). Of Market Street Railway’s lines, only the 8 went all the way to Castro Street..and the trolley buses that succeeded the streetcars on that route gave way to the F-line streetcars in 1995.

But that’s the past. On Sunday, July 19, you have the chance to go all the way out Market (well, to Noe Street anyway), and then ALL the way out the J-line, through newly renovated Dolores Park, over the famous “backyard route” across Dolores Heights, on Church through Noe Valley, and then along San Jose Avenue on the private right-of-way through the historic Bernal Cut, created by the Southern Pacific for steam trains!

This special charter will then loop through Cameron Beach Yard, where the historic streetcar fleet is normally housed (diverted temporarily to Metro East during construction), and then back downtown on the J and F lines. A 13-mile round trip!

To make it even better, it’s going to take place on Muni’s famous open-top 1934 Boat Tram from Blackpool, England.

Sign up today for $50 per person. (Market Street Railway members receive a 25% discount, so please consider joining us before you buy your tickets…you can get the discount on two tickets!) Seating capacity is limited, and the last boat tram tour, which stayed on the F-line, sold out, so move quickly.

Your ticket purchase provides the funds required to charter the streetcar from Muni, so all ticket sales must be final. All proceeds go to support Market Street Railway in its work to keep San Francisco’s transit history alive.

The weather is scary-summery, leading us to wring our hands over the worsening drought. But there’s an upside: a beautiful day expected Sunday for the first Sunday Streets event of the season, March 8 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. (Daylight Savings Time!) on The Embarcadero between Third Street and Pier 39. Details here. This is the now-established event where automobiles are detoured, opening the northbound roadway for bicyclists, tricyclists, unicyclists, skateboarders, and users of virtually any other self-powered vehicle. Including feet. But… — Read More

We’ve gotten so used to seeing the orange trams from Milan on Market Street and the waterfront that it can be a tad jarring to see them in their native habitat, especially a scene like this. In an average year, Milan sees snow on seven days or fewer. Of course, that’s seven days more than the annual snowfall in San Francisco, where long-time residents still marvel at the once-in-a-couple-of-decades dustings we get on Twin Peaks! (The photo at the top, taken… — Read More

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Who We Are

Market Street Railway is a non-profit organization with 1000 members, founded in 1976. Our mission: Preserving Historic Transit in San Francisco.

We advocate for historic streetcar and cable car service improvements and expansion, educate people about the importance of attractive transit in creating vibrant, livable cities, and celebrate the wonderful historic streetcars, cable cars, and buses owned and operated by Muni, a service of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA).

We also operate the free San Francisco Railway Museum across from the Ferry Building at 77 Steuart Street, open Tuesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Our group’s leaders were the driving force in making vintage streetcars a full-time part of the San Francisco scene in the 1980s and 1990s.

While we support Muni’s historic transit activities, we are not part of Muni and we receive no government money whatever. We rely instead on private donations and membership dues to help keep San Francisco’s past present in the future.

This website, our member newsletter, “Inside Track,” and our social media outlets bring you the latest news and information about San Francisco’s historic streetcars and cable cars.